Reforms to fruit and veg sector face delays

AMID all the furore over the export ban on British beef, EU agriculture ministers are slowly turning their thoughts to the more humdrum business of polishing off the long-delayed reform of the fruit and vegetable sector.

But the resolution of this highly contentious dispute looks likely to be sucked into a package of measures to be decided in the early hours of a May or June morning.

The European Parliament has now given its opinion on the proposals, meaning that, in theory at least, ministers can adopt them.

But member state officials say there is little prospect of much further progress when ministers meet in Luxembourg on 29-30 April, partly because BSE will dominate proceedings and partly because links are already being made to other plans on farm ministers’ plates – including the 1996/97 price proposals, changes to the banana import rules, the geographical labelling of foods and set-aside rules.

The main areas of contention are the question of who should pay for the reorganised fruit and vegetable sector, which costs the EU about 1.6 billion ecu a year.

Southern member states remain extremely upset at the Commission’s insistence that the EU should only cover 40% of the costs of restructuring a sector which has often suffered surplus production.

The Commission also faces problems over its plan to devolve much of the responsibility for distributing funding to “Producer Organisations” (POs). Some member states already have a highly developed system of cooperatives, while the structure in others does not fit in with the PO concept.